1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card loading device with a card feeding mechanism that automatically feeds a rectangular card along a line of travel that intersects a line across the width of the card at a right angle, and loads it into and discharges it from a receptacle. In particular, the present invention relates to a card loading device with a card feeding mechanism that feeds and discharges a rectangular card having a connector at its front face, and that engages the connector of the card with the connector of the receptacle, which is located forward along the line of travel of the card, in order to electrically connect the card to a card information processing mechanism, which is connected to the receptacle.
2) Description of Related Art
In general, a conventional card loading device is designed so that it automatically feeds and discharges cards that have an almost regular thickness. More specifically, drive rollers that are so arranged that they correspond to the respective plain sides of a card, and a pair of card accepting rollers are provided that form pinch rollers, so that a card, which has been inserted between rollers, is held in the direction of its thickness and conveyed by the rollers.
A conventional card loading device restricts the type of card that can be applied to one that has an almost regular thickness. To load cards having different thicknesses into the receptacle, various card loading devices corresponding to the thicknesses of the individual card must be prepared.